Intel ships 64-bit, 1MB L2 Pentium 4s

Intel yesterday rolled out its anticipated 5x1 Pentium 4 processors, adding the six CPUs to its official price list.

The chip giant also added a new 6x0 processor, the 3.8GHz 670, and placed its three dual-core Pentium Ds on the list too.

The 521, 531, 541, 551, 561 and 571 P4s all bring Intel's 64-bit technology, EM64T, to its line of 1MB L2 cache-enabled processors. The new chips are clocked at up to 3.8GHz, just like the existing 5x0 P4s, and are similarly fabbed at 90nm. They too use the LGA-775 interface, and support a frontside bus clocked to 800MHz.

Intel hasn't cut the prices of the existing 500-series parts - the new chips match the prices of their comparably clocked siblings. So, the 2.8GHz 521 costs $163, the 3GHz 531 $178, the 3.2GHz 541 $218, the 3.4GHz 551 $278, the 3.6GHz 561 $417 and the 3.8GHz 571 $637. Prices are per processor when sold in batches of 1,000 chips.

The new 600-series part is also EM64T-capable, but contains 2MB of L2 cache. Clocked at 3.8GHz, it's priced at $851 - a significant margin above the 3.8GHz 571, for which users are getting that extra megabyte of cache and the incorporation of its Intel's SpeedStep power-conservation technology.

The 2.8GHz Pentium D 820 also appears on the price list, at $241. The 3.2GHz 830 comes in at 316 and the 3.4GHz 840 at 530, all higher again than comparably clocked 600-series chips.

Intel is now not expected to make any further mainstream desktop processor launches this year. Q1 2006 will see the debut of 'Presler' and 'Cedar Mill', the 65nm successors to the Pentium D and the Pentium 4, respectively.

At the low-end, Intel is expected to add half a dozen new Celeron processors shortly as it rolls out EM64T across the budget desktop CPU line-up, with a single-chip speed bump coming in Q4. ®